Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify 

“Tomorrowsville” is the latest collection of high energy modern jazz compositions by pianist Randy Hoexter, who is on the faculty at Georgia State University where he teaches jazz composition and arranging. His keyboard talents have been sought out by artists as diverse as Jimmy Herring, Shane Theriot, Sonny Emory, Jeff Sipe and Chuck Rainey. The undercurrent on the new disc is one of hope and enthusiasm for the future. The ensemble features a five-piece horn section, world percussion and piano, with musicians include legendary bassist Jimmy Haslip of Yellowjackets fame and guitarist Mike Stern.

In the summer of 2024, Sam Butler and Garrett Fasig were approached with an idea to arrange a set of college fight songs for a jazz ensemble. Much brainstorming and writing was done to find out how to incorporate this unique American tradition of university pride with another great American tradition: jazz and improvised music. The pair collaborated on a set of twelve original arrangements for their Visions Jazz Ensemble that kept the melodies at the center, but provided new and fresh takes on songs that alumni would know for the rest of their lives. “Across the Field” includes fight songs from a handful of Big Ten schools along with Notre Dame, LSU, the Naval Academy and others.

Also this week, the Jeremy Ledbetter Trio returns with their sophomore release, “Gravity,” a high-powered set of new original music brimming with fresh ideas and jaw-dropping virtuosity; organist Brian Charette pays tribute to another great of the Hammond B3 organ, Brother Jack McDuff, with “You Don’t Know Jack”; and “Grab Bag: 2007-2023” is a nine track collection curated from the Greboy Allstars archives spanning sixteen years of rare and unreleased material.